Of ‘messes’ and ‘military meals’
Tamil Nadu is about the only place I know of that has ‘messes’, like the Karpagambal Mess in the previous post, and ‘military meals’ as in the well-known Velu Military Meals hotel. The origins of this style of naming an eatery do lie in the army. Apparently, in days gone by, most Tamils who ate non-vegetarian food were those who had served in the army. So to differentiate them from the ‘pure vegetarian’ restaurants, and to denote that they served non-vegetarian food without being direct, these restaurants adopted the term ‘mess’ or ‘military meals’. Quite brilliant really-they were able to target their audience well and communicate they served non-veg food.
What foxes me is why the liquor shops in Tamil Nadu are called ‘wine shops’ when they stock anything but a good bottle of wine!
David: Unless I read you wrong, I have to disagree that ‘mess’ is only used to denote an eatery that serves meat. Or for that matter the possible assertion that military-men were the largest meat-eating group in Tamil Nadu.
The ‘wine shop’ conundrum, I totally agree!
What foxes me is why the liquor shops in Tamil Nadu are called ‘wine shops’ when they stock anything but a good bottle of wine!
In a place where restaurants (or res-torrant/tarrant, as they say it on TV) go under the name of hotels, this isn’t very surprising.
Now, why would they call a veggy eatery a mess?
I do disagre to the fact that mess serves veggie food .Example- there is this famous kanakadurga mess in tnagar ( run by telgu ppl ) which serves non veg too)
For the tasmak crowd Wine is easier to pronounce than Liquor. Do you still call a photocopier a Xerox Machine? Even if you don’t David, these things have become conventions. Rather than debating what’s politically correct it’s better if your team brings out the hidden gems of Madras — now called Chennai.